TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I pretty much agree with Mr. Flaming Retard. ;) Hey,
he invented the title, not me.
Teaching tools is stupid as students will focus more
on learning what does what rather than the theory and
application of this knowledge toward getting shtuff
done. Seen it time and time again.
Rather, incorporate USING (not LEARNING) various tools
in the theory and practice classes. Get them
acquainted with the various types of software
available, but don't teach them the ins and outs. Why?
Tools ain't forever, folks. What was nifty 5 years ago
is old hat now. Tastes change. Products change. New
technologies arise and old ones change/fall.
Teach them to think. Teach them to be flexible. But
don't teach them how to produce 4 color glossy output
from FrameMaker and Photoshop.
There is definitely a noticable difference between
colleges that teach techie courses and colleges that
produce technologically-able individuals. And as far
as skills go, I'd much rather hire a capable,
technologically minded writer than a FrameMaker
monkey. And yes, I'm a FrameMaker user.
--- Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> Why not teach NO tools and focus instead on
> dissecting, analyzing,
> organizing, and managing complex technical
> information. The tool is
> irrelevant. ANYBODY can learn to use ...
> Knowing these
> tools does not make you an accomplished writer.
> The problem with English departments ... The
> Ivory Tower Tyrants
> running these departments don't want to become Devry
> Technical College.
> If these English departments stuck with their
> elitism and structured a
> program based on a cross-discipline theories in
> English, science,
> technology, math, and journalism - they might have
> something useful. ... such a program
> would demand that they
> actually THINK.
> Active Directory Replication to monkeys. They think
> tech writing is just
> fiddling with fonts in Frame.
> So, I say remove ALL tool-related classes from tech
> writing programs. Or
> at a minimum, reduce it down to a small, small
> fraction of the courses.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Find the one for you at Yahoo! Personals http://personals.yahoo.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Collect Royalties, Not Rejection Letters! Tell us your rejection story when you
submit your manuscript to iUniverse Nov. 6 -Dec. 15 and get five free copies of
your book. What are you waiting for? http://www.iuniverse.com/media/techwr
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
